As part of our contributor series, Steven W. Vehmeier, Appraisal Educator Emeritus, shares his advice on what to do in response to this month’s MLS hack.
A dozen or so states recently experienced the impact of a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) hack. Realtors and appraisers were left without one of the most commonly used sources for data on residential properties.
What can appraisers do in the case of an MLS hack, or any situation where their data source goes down? Possibilities include:
- Notify the client of potential for delays in delivery dates.
- Make a list of alternative data sources that might be available.
- Check out some of the free online sources.
- Try using sales from your files that might be applicable.
- Go on vacation.
- Cry.
The first four strategies are probably what you’d want to start with. Numbers two and three immediately bring to mind a word defined in USPAP: credible, meaning “worthy of belief.”
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Alternative data sources
What might be alternative sources for properties that sold and/or data about them?
- Online sites like Realtor.com, Zillow.com, and others
- Real property data subscription sites like PropMix, DataMaster, and others
- Realtors Property Resource (RPR)
- Local real estate brokers and/or local Realtor associations
- Other local appraisers
- Local builders
- Buyers and sellers and their neighbors
- County property appraiser’s office
- Official records offices have search options that can help
- Newspapers, particularly online publications
- Sometimes there are local property data sources specific to the area
- The appraiser’s own files
- May have comparables recently used in other assignments that could work
- May have sales that were not used in that appraisal, but might work for this one
Some of these alternatives are decidedly low-tech, and that’s okay. We don’t typically use candles or flashlights to light our homes, but in the event…